Tag: fortune

Improving email revenue? I certainly didn’t learn that one in school, and you probably didn’t either. In fact, in four years of journalism school, I never even had a single lesson in newspaper economics.

My professors were experienced reporters and editors, but none had ever figured out the business of publishing a newspaper. And none had ever met a payroll.

“You live and die by your ability to prioritize. You must focus on the most important, mission-critical tasks each day and night, and then share, delegate, delay or skip the rest.” Those are the wise words of Jessica Jackley, co-founder of the successful micro-loan startup, Kiva. And Eli Broad, 185th wealthiest person in the world, and the only person we know of who has built two Fortune 500 companies in two different industries confirms prioritizing and delegating simply isn’t done enough. “The inability to delegate is one of the biggest problems I see with managers at all levels,” says Broad.

Discover the carefully guarded source of the world’s most effective email subject lines that most professional copywriters don’t like to share

Turn basic headlines into social media gold by experimenting with these proven copywriting formulas for clickable social media headlines
Everything I’ve read as an observer of the social media and publishing communities tells me that most marketers don’t get a click rate on a Tweet of more than one percent, and in fact most marketers get

Back in 2006 I read an article comparing the fidelity and convenience of watching a movie on an iPod, a home theater, or in a state-of-the-art movie theater. The author cleverly pointed out that the three media platforms offer the viewer an inverted user experience on the dimensions of fidelity and convenience.

In other words, the users will experience high convenience and low fidelity on the iPod, or what now would be an iPad; moderate convenience and moderate fidelity with the home theater; and low convenience and high fidelity at the cinema. And for some people, it’s just about preference.

Today we’re reporting on a major publishing acquisition involving a couple of major multiplatform publishers; The acquisition of Time Inc. by Meredith Corporation. We also look at some thoughts on what this means within the greater magazine publishing industry.

Multiplatform publishing companies Billboard and Time Inc. make personnel changes; Corporate Board Member Magazine acquired by Chief Executive Group

A morphing environment for some multiplatform publishing companies involves new talent in key positions, as well as assets from other acquisitions. Today we look at both personnel and asset acquisitions from some major publishers.

We’re seeing changes come to multiplatform publishers, particularly as they work on alignment of digital properties.

Our first story looks at Hearst’s new CTO Michael Dugan, who is coming from Forbes to help the publication’s digital unit. Variety reports, “In the newly created position, Dugan will manage all aspects of Hearst Magazines Digital Media technical organization around the world. He reports to HMDM global president Troy Young.”

Niche publishers don’t need to fear domain extortion in the wake of brand domain availability

There’s a lot of evidence to show that the more constrained we are, the more creative we become. For example, Columbia University psychologist Patricia Stokes conducted a test on rodents, with a set who could only press a bar with their right

Multiplatform publishers Time Inc. and Fast Company roll out new products; People Magazine teams with ABC News
Some multiplatform publishers seek to leverage their brands while launching new products. We’re seeing that with our news story of the day.

Time Inc. is the media company we’re looking at first. According to MediaPost, “Time Inc. launched Thursday a

Will you prioritize upgrading the tools that will save you time, money, and your future?

“You live and die by your ability to prioritize. You must focus on the most important, mission-critical tasks each day and night, and then share, delegate, delay or skip the rest.” Those are the wise words of Jessica Jackley, co-founder of

Magazines with the most mobile traffic have great mobile magazine websites and social-friendly content
The Association of Magazine Media recently stated that on average, magazine websites are getting 26% of their traffic from mobile. According to AdWeek, “The MPA’s monthly Magazine Media 360° report dissected publishers’ online traffic in July and compared it with traffic from a

Building relationships and high-quality content serve subscription websites like Scribd, The Telegraph, and Food52
Do you remember when subscription websites started using paywalls to add a new revenue stream to their publication? There was much debate about the process, including the rate to charge customers for access.

The question of price is still a hot topic by

Multiplatform magazine subscribers are looking for more from you. “Let’s make magazines great again,” shall we?
Last week, after over a year of grueling controversy and debate, the US named Donald Trump as President-elect. While half the country was caught scratching their heads, and the other half applauding, Fortune wrote an article about how good marketing got

People who are in jobs where they’re a good fit tend to be happy. They are also more productive.

Making business more productive is a centuries old goal. For much of the twentieth century, the emphasis has been placed on improving business processes with management providing virtually all of the critical thinking skills.

In 1911, Frederick Winslow Taylor wrote in Principles of Scientific Management that workers are treated as parts of a process, not unlike the parts of a machine. In his book he explained how workers were told exactly what to do, how to do it, and rewarded for success.

The Association of Magazine Media (MPA) released its Top 10 magazine brands for the first half of 2016 on July 28, along with its most current audience data taken from those six months. The findings, compiled by MPA metrics arm Magazine Media 360°, continue to show strong growth while also marking major shifts in mobile media consumption.

Magazine expansion is a key to magazine survival and success. Building on your product is a key tenet of multiplatform publishing strategy. The question is, how do you pull it off? Well, there are many possibilities, as recent coverage from FolioMag.com shows.

The publishers making news when it comes to monetizing digital content include Quartz, Fortean Times, and Dennis
Is there anything more important than monetizing digital content for magazines looking to embrace multiplatform publishing strategy? The answer is an obvious no, but the less obvious answer is to the follow-up question “How do you get there?”

The answer

Digital magazine sales surveyed among 14 of the top magazine publishers are skyrocketing on a single-copy level, according to a recent Pew Research Center study. Year-over-year website traffic is on the rise, as well, SubscriptionInsider.com reports.

Digital media publishing is a challenge, but it’s a worthy challenge, because it will make you money when it’s done right.

Print media publishing is a challenge, too, and it still has a place, and always will, as far as we’re concerned.

Where’s that happy medium? Well, give us a call, and we can chat about it. Otherwise, let’s get a quick survey of the industry from our friends at MinOnline.

Taking a closer look at Instagram publishing; plus, magazines on Twitter, data-driven publishing, and other social media strategies
Regardless of whether you plan on participating in Facebook Instant Articles or other walled gardens, there’s no doubt that as a modern digital publisher, you must have a significant social media strategy in place to stay competitive and

Is an online ad network the answer to publishers’ prayers when it comes to digital advertising revenue? We’re seeing it with programmatic partnerships and other arrangements, and why not? Brands have a lot of power in the current climate, but digital magazines can muster some mojo, as well, by uniting to provide advertisers the best possible placement and viewability.

Then again, we don’t fault any publisher for going it alone, as many do via social media and services like Magzter. After all, monetization is in the eye of the beholder. But Mequoda Members know that the more platforms, the merrier.

Migrating your publishing operations and editions from print to digital might at first feel daunting, but don’t fret: It’s a manageable move – just ask any Mequoda Member – and one that’s more and more becoming a must.

The same principles of publishing apply, but going from print to digital gives you the opportunity to maximize your content’s potential by multiplying its impact across platforms and channels, from articles to online archives to events to video to white papers to podcasts and much more.

It doesn’t take more work or more staff to succeed on desktop and mobile, only different work and more dynamic staff hired and trained to handle tech, social media strategy, and how to sell online advertising.

But you don’t need us to tell you all of this. Sometimes, you need to hear it from peers who have pulled it off. MinOnline has just such a story in a recent interview.

Which magazines on social media are performing especially well as of the third quarter of 2015? Well, the Association of Magazine Media 360° is glad we asked – they recently released their latest Social Media Report, which covers the top 25 magazines across all social networks in terms of likes and followers, as well as the top on each channel.

Dedicating resources to an online magazine archive is a best practice for multiplatform publishers that we highly recommend, and a big key to success in the Mequoda Method.

Our favorite part about digital magazine archives? You don’t actually have to dedicate too many resources to make them work. Aside from some general maintenance, most of the work is on the front end, building onto searchable infrastructure that you’ll already have in place. The content, by definition, is already in place! You don’t have to optimize it, because as a product of your digital subscriptions, it will be behind a wall uncrawlable by Google. At the same time, however, you can recycle content from your online magazine library with updates and improvements, and treat it like an inexhaustible well for promotional purposes.

Adweek recently covered the latest player in the online magazine archive movement, and this one might be the biggest one yet!

Recycling is associated with cutting costs, but is cutting costs a surefire sign of downward sales? Not when it comes to publishing and the smart publishers who have succeeded their competitors by embracing it. When publishers think of multi-platform media, they think of digital magazines, but even then, many are only offering carbon copies of their prints. Year after year, piles of back issues are thrown into the stock room, never to be seen again, until they become digital replicas.

This is a fatal mistake, especially in today’s digital landscape. The most successful magazines have adopted multi-platform publishing to grow their businesses and they’re doing it on a budget.

We’re starting the week off with a healthy dose of digital publishing news from both sides of the Atlantic: mergers & acquisitions, platform considerations, and personnel moves. We monitor industry trends from the best sources so that you can track them in your periphery and inform your approach while focusing on the most important thing: your product.

The days of starting a magazine, sitting back, and watching the revenue roll in are over. Publishers must be vigilant in monitoring industry trends, establishing best practices, and monetizing content via multiplatform strategies. Not as part of a five-year strategic plan, but with every monthly editorial calendar. Folio: has you covered on the industry trends. Here are five recent articles that cover various companies’ efforts in monetizing content.

This week’s roundup of the latest publishing industry trends includes the continued focus on monetizing ed tech, plus one media company’s melding of events and e-commerce. We’ll also get a quick glance at the latest magazine personnel moves, as well as an interesting take on the phenomenon of BuzzFeeding B2B content. Folio: covers the magazine business beat better than anybody. A handful of recent articles capture these publishing industry trends and more.

For the second time in 2015, a leading online learning platform is making huge publishing industry news – but this story goes well beyond the $186 million Lynda.com investment back in January.

Let’s take a look at that development as well as two others reported on in Folio: late last week.

After turning Atlantic Media into a global force to be reckoned with, Justin Smith now has his sights set on Bloomberg digital reigning supreme more than one year into his tenure and months into a radical redesign.

A Lynda.com investment round announced on January 14 demonstrated a renewed commitment to both education technology and digital publishing.

Inc. is experiencing growth that most magazines aren’t, and that includes some of the major magazine publishers.

The website traffic for Time has grown significantly, and it’s due to added content from other publishers in their corporate group, including titles like Sports Illustrated, Fortune, and Health. Additionally, it’s serving content from publishers outside of its corporate space, like Rolling Stone and Quora.

Three major publishers have made website design changes. Quartz, Fortune, and Bloomberg have all updated their websites to grab more attention and keep users more engaged.

In its first fiscal quarter since breaking from Time Warner, Time Inc.’s overall ad revenue spiked 3% year-over-year, helped by a 12% jump in digital sales. Ad Age reports that overall ad revenue for the second quarter totaled $461 million.

Time Inc.’s Fortune – which recently split online from CNNMoney.com – has named Alan Murray, formerly of the Pew Research Center and The Wall Street Journal, its new editor. Murray, who will succeed Andy Serwer, was recently interviewed by Ad Week, and he made it clear during the conversation that Fortune’s focus will be on the magazine’s digital presence.

Time.com’s bounce rate is down 15% since adopting continuous scrolling for its content, the Poynter Institute reports. In addition, after its March redesign, the site saw a 21% jump in visitors reading a second piece of content.

The site will publish upward of 90 pieces per day, according to Poynter. Meanwhile, sister brand Money will publish 20 to 30. Taken together, the magazines have hired more than 30 new staff members.

Time Inc.’s Fortune and Money have officially split from CNNMoney.com, and each is publishing a new website, according to TechCrunch.

Who’s building digital circulation fastest? The top digital magazine performers are the under-the-radar companies you rarely read about
This is our final analysis (you’re welcome) of AAM’s latest circulation data from December 2013. So far we’ve looked at:

Top 25 by digital circulation
Top 25 by Online Media Index (OMI)
Top 25 by digital circulation as percentage of total

Digiday surveyed some of the biggest – and most influential – names in the business to get a sense of how magazines are approaching the ethics of sponsored live events.

With the recent release of AAM’s biannual circulation data, it’s time to take a look not at circulation, but at the overall health of U.S. magazines’ multiplatform publishing efforts. In Mequoda world, we have a little number we call the Online Media Index (OMI) that measures just that, and the results are

Matt Cutts, head of web spam at Google, published a post on his personal blog that pretty much says if you’re using guest blogging for SEO purposes, you’re a black hat. Cutts writes, “Okay, I’m calling it: if you’re using guest blogging as a way to gain links in 2014, you should probably stop. Why? Because

Stipla is a new interactive iPad magazine that tells the stories of people from around the world. Cool Hunting’s Nara Shin writes, “Stipla combines writing with panoramic photographs.

Ad Week is reporting that The Washington Post has launched a new visual news project called Topicly. Lucia Moses writes, “Topicly provides a visual presentation of the day’s biggest topics. When you click on one of the topics, which are arranged checkerboard-fashion, you’re taken to a collection of all the content produced by the paper on that topic, updated every 15 minutes.

To put this post together, we banged together the heads of everyone on the Mequoda team to consolidate some of the mishaps that have occurred with our clients. There have been some truly talented print editors that were either let go, or left by themselves because they couldn’t weather the print to digital transitions. Ones that refused to SEO their content and wasted hundreds of thousands of dollars in content that had to be re-optimized later.

… as long as you answer the million-dollar question

What’s in it for me?

This is more than just a popular refrain among toddlers and politicians. This is the question you must answer with every landing page letter you write. Great landing pages will convert visitors to members, and members to subscribers or buyers, only if you can capture the audience’s attention, keep it, and finally convince them to hand over an email address or buy your product.

It May Be Time to Get on the eLearning Curve

According to the American Society of Training and Development (ASTD) 2011 State of the Industry Report, money spent by organizations on learning and development of their employees increased by 13.5% last year. In the U.S. alone, more than $68.5 billion was allocated to external training providers.

Five Techniques to Building the Better Subject Line

Here’s a test of subject lines (from a mortgage company) from copywriter Mark Everett Johnson, a frequent speaker at SIPA events. Choose one.
1) “Do you want to save thousands with no-hassle refinancing?”
2) “Who else wants to save thousands with no-hassle refinancing?”

Drumroll please. Number two won by 37%. “People click on that because they don’t want to miss out,” Johsnon said “and the ‘who else wants to’ headline clearly suggests that it’s already happening, that it really happens and other people are getting this advantage and you’re missing out on it.” The idea that you can change three words and get such an upswing in open rates is amazing, and a tribute to testing. “…the thing that runs through all successful direct marketing organizations is the commitment to testing,” Johnson said.